Ben & Jerry's Co-founder Jerry Greenfield to Visit Doane

By

Nancy Weyers

October 23, 2007

Doane students and the public can learn from the entrepreneur called "one of the least conventional success stories in American business" when Jerry Greenfield -- co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. - speaks in Doane's Heckman Auditorium Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 at 7 p.m.

He also will visit Doane classes and meet with groups of Doane students.

Greenfield helped turn a storefront venture into a $300 million ice cream empire. But he is also famous for the way the business was built - an environment where social responsibility and creative management were strengths rather than weaknesses.

His lectures are called "a rousing tribute to America's entrepreneurial spirit," including the radical business philosophy and the great sense of fun that is the company's hallmark.

Greenfield is the co-author of the best-seller "Ben & Jerry's Double-Dip: Lead with Your Values and Make Money, Too." He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1951, four days before his partner, Ben Cohen. He grew up and went to school in Merrick, Long Island, where he met Cohen in junior high school. Decades of friendship later, the pair decided to pursue their dream of starting a food business together. After receiving A's in a $5 Penn State correspondence course in ice cream making, they set up their Ben & Jerry's ice cream parlor in Burlington, Vermont in 1978. It quickly became well known for its rich, unusual flavors and community approach to business.

Today, Greenfield's official titles at the company include Vice-Chair of the Board and Director of Mobile Promotions. He often joins Cohen at many speaking engagements and, along with Cohen, is very active in Businesses For Social Responsibility, a group that works to promote an alternative business model based on socially responsible business practices.

He's also a "Joy Pooh-Bah Emeritus," sometimes consulting for the Joy Gang, a group of Ben & Jerry's employees dedicated to bringing more joy into the workplace through fun activities.

Greenfield and wife, Elizabeth, have one son, Tyrone.

His visit is sponsored by Doane's Hansen Leadership program. For more information, contact Daniel VanVechten, director of the Hansen Leadership Program at 402.826.8271.